Winter can wreak havoc on your home.  Heavy snow and ice can damage your property and extreme cold can freeze and break pipes, causing significant water damage.  That’s why homeowners should prepare ahead of time, ideally in the fall.  The Insurance Information Institute has some suggestions:

Maintain gutters
Remove leaves, sticks, and other debris from gutters so melting snow and ice can flow freely.  Consider installing gutter guards, which are screens that prevent debris from entering the gutter and direct the flow of water away from the house and into the ground.

Trim trees and remove dead branches
Ice, snow, and wind can cause weak trees or branches to break, damaging your home, car, or injuring someone on your property.

Check insulation
Add extra insulation to attics, basements, and crawl spaces.  If too much heat escapes through the attic it can cause snow or ice to melt on the roof.  The water re-freezes causing more snow and ice to build up which can result in a collapsed roof.

Maintain pipes
Wrap pipes with heating tape or some sort of insulation.  Also check and repair cracks and leaks.

Keep the house warm
The temperature in your house should be at least 65 degrees.  Remember, the temperature inside the walls where the pipes are located is a lot colder than the walls themselves.

Check heating systems
The proper use and maintenance of furnaces, fireplaces, and wood-burning stoves can prevent fire and smoke damage.  Have furnaces, boilers, and chimneys serviced at least once a year and change your smoke detector batteries.

Get to know your plumbing
Learn how to shut the water off and know where your pipes are located.  If your pipes freeze, time is of the essence.  The quicker you can shut off the water the better chance you have to prevent the pipes from bursting.

          In addition, homeowners or “snow birds" who leave their homes for any length of time during the winter will want to purchase a freeze alarm or temperature monitor.  These devices can be programmed to phone you or a neighbor if there is a power failure or the temperature drops below a certain degree.

          One suggested product is the FA-B-CCA - Freeze Alarm (www.HomeSecurityStore.com $55.96).  This alarm provides the most cost effective means to protect your home, cabin, or business against a winter freeze.  The FA-B-CCA will automatically call one telephone number when the temperature drops below 45 deg F or 7 deg C and play an alarm message.  It will continuously call every 15 minutes or 2 hours until you acknowledge the alarm by calling back to your remote home or cabin.

          One other suggested product is the FA-I-CCA - Freeze Alarm (www.HomeSecurityStore.com $161).  The FA-I-CCA is a popular model that calls up to 3 phone numbers and alerts you with a voice message if the temperature gets too low or too high, if the power goes out for more than one hour, or if the back-up battery needs replacing.